Marvell May Pay $3.5 Billion for 'Willfully' Infringing Patent

The amount is larger than Apple was awarded in its case against Samsung.

Gary Krakow

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- A federal-court jury in Pittsburgh has found in favor of Carnegie-Mellon University in a patent infringement case against computer-chip maker Marvell(:MRVL).

The jury decided that Marvell infringed on a number of patents concerning computer hard drives. It awarded the university $1.17 billion in damages.

And if that's not bad enough, the jury decided that Marvell willfully infringed upon the patents, which means the school might be due a lot more. If so ordered, Marvell might have to pay triple damages, or $3.5 billion in fines.

For those keeping track, that's a larger sum than Apple was awarded (nearly $1.05 billion) in its landmark case against Samsung -- a jury decision still being fought in the courts. Two big jury verdicts of the past, such as Alcatel-Lucent(:ALU) vs. Microsoft(:MSFT) ($1.52 billion) and Centocor (now Janssen Biotech) vs. Abbott Labs(:ABT) ($1.67 billion), were overturned on appeal.

As expected, Marvell has released a statement saying it plans to appeal the jury's decision.